The home-stretch of the 1990 Minnesota senate race found candidate Paul Wellstone down by double-digits, yet he continued to scrap. Campaign manager Patrick Forciea explained the strategy: “We are going to get as close as we can, wait for a lightning storm and then head out to the golf course and wave a 9-iron around.” In the end his opponent stumbled and Wellstone won by a sliver.
With time running out for Israel Isaiah adopts a similar strategy: He takes to the wilderness and brandishes a verbal lightning rod in the face of the Almighty. Like Leer on a storm-strafed heath or Captain Ahab on the pitching decks of the Pequod, the prophet dares God to do the worst on the argument that divine action – even judgment – is better than divine indifference. “Oh, that you would rend the heavens.” The verb describes ripping cloth, as the Almighty blasts into oblivion the veil that makes Heaven seem distant.
But Isaiah sneaks in another idea here: This word appears frequently for the rending of garments as a sign of mourning. (Isa 36.22, 37.1) Father and potter: God who begets and shapes us, if You cannot excuse, can You at least mourn?
At Advent God’s church confesses that we should have done better by now. Two millennia after Our Lord’s appearance and still we wallow in partisan bickering and cut daily deals with the devil to survive. All our religion is menstrual rags. If Christ should split the eastern skies the blast of his breath would blow our works away and leave us as naked as Adam’s fig leaves left him after the Fall.
And yet we cry for Christ to come. We dare to wave the nine-irons of our prayers in the lightning storm of eternity for two reasons: First of all, God is better than no-God; better to be ignited than ignored. Secondly, the God who condemns is the God who grieves. At the moment of Christ’s death the Lord rent the temple veil, an act of judgment, of grief and of mercy. Naked we wait love’s uplifted stroke: Even so, Lord Jesus, come!
Let ‘Er Rip!
Doug
So glad you didn't have a photo to go along with the second to last paragraph.
ReplyDeleteGood post, my friend...but I did throw up a little in my mouth, too. No brunch for me now.
Lisa - Yeah, it's a little gross, but that's the meaning of that Hebrew word. Blame Isaiah, or God if you're into the dictation theory . . . . Hey, thanks for the FB shout-out!
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